A LITTLE SIDE ACTION

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

Jack Markell has a little action going on the side
for some political high-rollers. He has a way for them
to skirt the state's individual contribution limits, as
he runs for another term as Delaware's Democratic
governor.

Markell has a PAC, or political action committee,
called The Committee for a Better Future. The name is so
vague, it all but says, anyone who has to ask what it
is, does not need to know about it.

Truth in advertising, it ought to be called JackPAC.

This is for the serious players, coming in through
the back door. Money can arrive in $10,000 chunks, some
of it from surprising contributors, including
Republicans and a branch of Stoltz real estate. Who
knew?

In the five years since Markell turned his attention
from treasurer to governor, JackPAC has collected almost
$222,000, according to its financial disclosure reports
from 2007 through 2011. The amount pales next to the
money for "Markell for Delaware," the official campaign
organization that financed a $4 million run in 2008 and
banked $1.4 million so far for 2012, but still.

Year

Contributions

2007

$10,000

2008

$145,400

2009

0

2010

$5,600

2011

$60,500

Total

$221,500

JackPAC was one way that Markell ramped up for the
2008 election, a wild ride involving a tumultuous and
bittersweet primary that ultimately made him the
governor and spun John Carney into the state's lone
congressional seat two years thereafter.

It is all perfectly, cold-bloodedly legal. Under
state law, a statewide candidate cannot accept
individual contributions of more than $1,200 per
election, but a candidate's PAC can take contributions
in unlimited amounts. Unlimited means unlimited.

A PAC can function as an auxiliary campaign account,
although it does have some restrictions on how it can
spend its money. A candidate who controls a PAC can use
it to pay for all manner of activities, except for
advertising that directly champions the candidate.

JackPAC gave a lot of its money to other Democrats,
trying to build loyalty to him and his causes. The
contributions had to comply with the customary legal
limits, giving no more than $1,200 in a statewide race
and $600 in a local one.

For example, at one point JackPAC gave $1,200 to Matt
Denn, the fellow Democrat running for lieutenant
governor, and $600 to Pete Schwartzkopf, the Democratic
majority leader in the state House of Representatives.

Although both the getting and the giving can accrue
to Markell's credit, JackPAC is portrayed as having a
larger mission.

"The purpose of The Committee For a Better Future has
been and remains to assist good people in serving in
public office," said Brian Selander, the governor's
chief strategy officer who ran JackPAC in the time
between the primary and the inauguration.

The top giver to JackPAC was Don Puglisi, once a
business professor who left the University of Delaware
to start a financial consulting firm in Newark. In total
he was a $50,000 contributor, notable not only for his
generosity but for the connections that make sense only
in Delaware.

Puglisi taught with Markell's late father at the
university. His firm happens to be the workplace for
Greg Lavelle, the House Republican minority leader.

Republicans have helped out JackPAC, too. There was
David Marvin, along with his wife Nancy, giving $35,000.
Marvin, who runs an investment firm and used to manage
the pension fund at DuPont, served with Markell for 10
years on the Cash Management Policy Board, overseeing
the state's investments, while Markell was the
treasurer.

There were also Gerret and Tatiana Copeland,
contributing $10,000. Gerret is a du Pont. Tanya is the
great-niece of Sergei Rachmaninoff. They are great
friends of the arts in Delaware, as are the governor and
first lady.

"The Republican Party in Delaware isn't [much of a
political force.] It doesn't seem to be able to come up
with a good, viable candidate," Gerret Copeland said.
"Jack is fiscally a moderate. I think he's doing a very,
very good job getting the state back together. Another
reason we like him is he and Carla are big backers of
the arts."

Like the contributions from Republicans, others did
not necessarily make sense at first glance -- like the
one for $10,000 from Rock River Real Estate. What was
that?

Rock River, as Selander acknowledged, was part of
Stoltz Real Estate Partners. The contribution arrived in
October 2008 in the early days of the controversy that
rocked New Castle County with the developer's expansive
proposals for Barley Mill Plaza and Greenville Center.

Citizens for Responsible Growth in New Castle County,
an organization that fought to persuade Stoltz to scale
back its plans, appealed to the Markell administration
to intervene but got nowhere. They chalked it up to the
governor's virtually single-minded commitment to bring
in jobs.

"It was a county issue," Selander said.

More recently, JackPAC took in $19,000 collectively
from the soft drink industry, including Coca Cola and
PepsiCo. The contributions arrived in 2011, the year
after Delaware repealed the bottle bill and its
five-cent-per-bottle deposit, so despised by the
beverage business.

Coincidence, Selander said. Rather, the soft drink
people contributed once they got to know Markell while
he chaired the Democratic Governors Association during
the 2010 campaign season.

JackPAC's activities reflected the political reality
when he was locked in combat with Carney for the
nomination for governor. Carney had the Democratic Party
endorsement, so Markell went outside and buried his
spending in JackPAC.

It paid almost $20,000 for what Selander described as
"canvassing and door-knocking" to Citizens Services Inc.
of New Orleans. That would be an associate of ACORN, the
defunct community organization that Republicans love to
hate.

What a difference a primary can make. Look what it
meant for Timothy Brown and Terence Brown, whose family
is part owners of Murphy Marine Services at the
Wilmington port. They were Carney backers, giving
$20,000 to the Democratic Party before the primary,
while it was furiously trying to beat Markell.
Afterwards, they turned around and sent $10,000 to
JackPAC.

"We're good loyal Democrats," said Darrell Baker, a
lawyer who represents Murphy Marine.

The primary made a difference for Selander himself.
Once it was done, he took over JackPAC and got paid
$30,000 for it.

At the end of 2011, JackPAC had $45,000 available.
Needless to say, the election year is young and the
committee primed for a better future.